LATELY talks about the revival of mandatory ROTC for senior high school students came up again due mainly to the current situation i.e. lack of discipline and nationalism among the youth and the peace and order scenario. Hence it prompted a revisit and remastering of this previous column.
First things first. Before the uninitiated gets lost in translation, let’s define our title’s main topics: conscription and ROTC.
According to that very convenient online Oxford’s Dictionary:
Conscription – a “compulsory enlistment for state service, typically into the armed forces”
ROTC is an abbreviation for “Reserve Officers’ Training Corps”, a training program for university students, graduates of which become commissioned officers in one of the armed forces
While most of us are quite familiar with ROTC, particularly the male population, as one way or the other we have gone through it in university, conscription is not so common a term in these islands. For some it’s just something they came across in a book, a film or the news, mostly though probably cannot tell the difference between a fig tree and conscription.
So why are we talking about it?
ROTC is an unpleasant experience most of us had in university that we are glad our sons will no longer go through as it is no longer a compulsory requirement for graduation.
In 2001 then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed into law Republic Act 9163 or the NSTP Act of 2001 which effectively remove ROTC as a mandatory requirement for graduation.
This was the result of the natives up in arms against ROTC as it had already become irrelevant and a major source of corruption and abuse resulting into deaths of several students.
The trigger that brought about these talks about the revival of mandatory ROTC for senior high school were two speeches by President Rodrigo Duterte and here are excerpts from those two speeches:
From the April 24, 2017 issue of Panay News:
“Who else will defend you? America will not die for you. Kayo ang magpakamatay sa bayan. Kayo ang magsakripisyo,” Duterte told his young audience, citing threats to the country’s security such as terrorism.
“You have to go back to ROTC,” Duterte insisted during the opening ceremony of the 60th Palarong Pambansa that Antique province is hosting for the first time.
It’s either mandatory ROTC is revived “or would you rather that I come up with a law on conscription” like in other countries such as Israel, Duterte told his Palaro audience.”
And from the Nov. 23, 2018 story from PhilStar global:
In a speech Thursday, Duterte renewed his call for the revival of the mandatory ROTC program for college students. He also called on the Congress to pass a law that would require mandatory ROTC for Grade 11 and 12 students.
This, he said, would “instil patriotism, love of country among our youth.”
I totally agree with President Rodrigo Duterte, America will not come running to our rescue if we are invaded unless it is profitable for them. We are not “little brown Americans.”
No one has got our backs except ourselves; we are the ones who will defend our homes and our country, no one else.
However, I am very apprehensive about the plan to revive ROTC, that program is very much open to abuse and corruption. We are all aware that in any kind of requirement here in these islands i.e. diplomas, drivers license, or barangay clearance, some enterprising individual in charge will see it as way to make personal profit.
And the abuses…we all know from experience that those ROTC Commandants and Tactical Officers are not real soldiers; they are mostly reservists who like to play “soldier boy” ala Jerry Treñas or Antonio Trillanes.
These “soldier boys” are mostly losers who take it out on the ROTC cadets and inflict “cruel and unusual” punishments for whatever infractions they see fit or imagine.
In terms of teaching the ROTC cadets the “art of warfare”, I don’t think so. For two years the ROTC cadet spends it marching up and down the field and doing squats and push ups.
If ever they teach you about “real soldiering” the basic rifle they use is vintage World War 2, meaning they belong in a museum, not a training field for modern warfare. What good will it do you if you’re proficient in the M1 Garand rifle when the standard rifle now is the M4 carbine. Even the M16 Armalite is now vintage Vietnam War.
Above all, the most prevalent attitude towards ROTC is that nobody takes it seriously; it’s just something you have to grin and bear to be able to graduate. Minimal if not zero sense of nationalism.
If President Rodrigo Duterte wants a well-trained citizen’s army then it has to be the real thing, not some university requirement that everybody hates (well, not all as there are those misguided souls who take up advance ROTC and become officers thinking this could make them popular in campus, especially with the girls).
What we need is a well-trained citizen’s army of qualified natives, I mean here both male and female, to defend the republic. A conscription program following the successful model of Israel, South Korea and Singapore is what we need to defend these islands and not ROTC. (brotherlouie16@gmail.com/PN)
